


Hero of no one

by Aurora_Damigny



Category: Naruto
Genre: Action & Romance, Badass, Dramatic Past, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Humor, Hurt/Comfort, Inappropriate Humor, M/M, Memory Loss, Orphan - Freeform, Orphanage, Politics, Poverty, Revenge, Sasuke is an Avenger, Secret Identity, Slow Burn, Touch-Starved, VIgilante sasuke, Vigilante, Vigilantism, hero - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-03-30
Updated: 2019-11-07
Packaged: 2019-12-27 01:19:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 11
Words: 18,432
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18293930
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aurora_Damigny/pseuds/Aurora_Damigny
Summary: " Naruto is terrorized when the man approaches him. His whole face is hidden and it makes him look like a monster from a video game, the kind that Iruka would confiscate at first sight.He reaches for Naruto's chest and the blond takes a step back, so panic-stricken that he doesn't even try to run away.Then the vigilante murmurs, with a very deep voice "Please let me."Naruto answers with a noise of aghast incomprehension, and the man adds "Check that you're not hurt." "- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -In which Sasuke is a vigilante, trying to get revenge on the people who killed his family nine years ago and are now ruling the country. Naruto is an orphan who happens to look exactly like his dead best friend.(Actually a funny fic I swear)





	1. If nightmares bring you to me then I'll sleep forever

"Kiba, you better give me back my fucking phone right now !"

  
"Yeah ? Why don’t you try to take it from me, Ino ?"

  
Naruto laughs as he watches the two teenagers fight. He was on his way to the living room to watch TV, but this is actually much more entertaining. He better move out of the way though, before…

  
"You two stop this ! Right this second !"

  
He makes a face as Iruka storms in the hallway, his phone already in his hand, ready to call the director.

  
"But sir, Kiba stole my phone, it’s his fault ! Kiba stop being a dickhead !" Ino’s long blond hair flutters around her face as she tries to reach for the boy’s hand.

  
"I just want to know who is this Sai guy that you’re texting, honey."

  
"It’s none of your business !"

  
"Enough, both of you." Iruka grabs the phone. He stands with a hand on his waist, in a bossy stance. His high and messy ponytail and big brown eyes make him look lax, but Naruto knows better. This guys has been a tyrant since he was hired in the orphanage a few months ago. No smoking, no stealing, no staying outside all night... He is managing the 16 to 18 years old section with an iron-fist.

The guy who monitored them before, Mitsuki, has been fired because he would ask them to sell his weed for him. They had been kind of sorry that he left, really. The dude was super chill and would let them keep 20% of the money they got from dealing.

Most of them are either failing class or have dropped out of school, so earning some savings for when they would hit 18 and the state would kick them out in the street was terrific.

"Naruto, are you involved in this ?"

  
The blond teenage boy expected this. For some reason, Iruka is always up his ass. He grins.

  
"Just passing by, sir. Didn’t knew the corridor is now a no-go zone."

  
The monitor frowns. "And why did you miss breakfast this morning ?"

  
"Too busy jerking off" he sasses.

  
Ino gasps at the retort, her phone forgotten for one second as she stares at him with a "stop-messing-around" look on her face. But Naruto hates it when people try to control him, especially adults who pretend to care.

  
He did not show up to eat because he had woken up sweating and crying. He had that dream again. Of the little kid with dark, intimidating eyes, but a gentle expression. It was not the boy who made him gain consciousness with an urge to scream. It was the memory that always comes after encountering him in his slumber. He is locked in a dim, empty room, and he is dying. Dehydrated, starving, his throat and stomach are aching so much that he can no longer move or scream. His eyes are burning as if they were trying to sink inside his head. All he is able to hear is his pulse and he can smell his own sweat and piss.

It’s his first childhood memory.

He was about eight years old, when the cops found him there, according to the doctors. They saved his life, but Naruto remembered nothing, not even his own name. Since no one showed up to reclaim him, and he do not recall having parents anyway, he ended up being sent to a foster home.

  
The first parents who had welcomed him in their house had the same look on their face that Iruka has right now. The one that wonders "The hell am I gonna do with this garbage kid ?"

  
"Just go set the table for lunch, Naruto." Iruka sighs, rubbing his forehead. "Kiba, next time you take someone else’s phone, I will take yours "

He gives her phone back to Ino and leaves.

Naruto shares a gleeful look with the girl. They both did not expected to get away so easily. Clearly Iruka is having a Sunday morning burn-out, and it is working in their advantage.

  
As he puts the plates on the table, Naruto thinks about the kid. He wonders, not for the first time, if they were brothers or best friends. He must have been important to him, if he keeps being conjured by his mind, when he can not summon up even one image of his mom or dad.

  
After they eat, his friend Shikamaru suggests that they go smoke outside.

Choji, Ino, Shikamaru and himself walk to the park in the chilly weather. The Suna park is not for children and families, the only people who go there are teenagers who smoke weed and prostitutes making their dough. For now, they all are part of the first category.

  
As they push the litter to make space to sit, a few bystanders glare at them. Even in the shitty neighborhood, having no parents makes you persona non grata. Especially Naruto, who is known to have been a dangerous thug.

As Choji rolls the joint, Shikamaru takes a newspaper out of his bag. He’s the only teenager that Naruto knows who reads actual, paper-based newspaper. It makes him look so serious and plush, even wearing a ripped hoodie and old jeans. But Shikamaru would look smart even wearing a clown costume, he is just that cool.

  
Naruto gazes at the grey sky, as he listens to Ino and Choji gossip about Sai, Ino’s new boyfriend in highschool. Choji thinks that Ino should break up with him, and Naruto agrees. Sai seems to be an asswipe, part of the reasons why Naruto is happy to have been kicked out of the school system. All those douchebags who made fun of him, and the teachers who treated him as a burden because he could not understand shit. Good riddance.

  
The blond girl stops talking, when Shikamaru looks up from his reading with a smirk.

  
"Listen to this you guys." He looks down to read the newspaper "A shocking rise in vigilante violence is threatening the rule of law in Konoha. Prime Minister Orochimaru denounces the actions undertaken by the person -or group of person- who has been terrorizing politicians, businessmen, and the police force for the past three years. The vigilante, named Susano by his supporters, referring to his power and strength and to the now disintegrated Amaterasu group, had recently became the number one most wanted criminal by the roots bloc of the police force."

  
"This is so amazing" Ino squeals, snatching the paper out of Shikamaru’s hands.

  
Naruto sneers "You’re too stoned if you start believing in superhero stories, gimme the joint "

  
Shikamaru laughs, "But I’m actually impressed they have not been caught yet. They’ve been becoming more and more reckless this year, and the damn root is hunting them down now. Those guys are not fucking around."

  
The blond shrugs "I have beaten up some fuckers too, what’s the big deal ? "

  
"Yeah, but Susano at least was not caught by the cops and sent to juvie to run in the rain every morning for months." Choji teases him as he tries to take the newspaper from Ino’s tight grip.

  
Naruto rolls his eyes, not bothering to retort. « I’ll go get us some beers » he says instead, and takes off before his friends starts physically fighting for the damn news. Nerds.

  
He walks in a nearby store, and waits for the cashier to start talking to a client to hide two bottles under his jacket. Trying to look like a normal customer and not a broke, depraved brat, he quickly strolls out of the shop. He exhales in relief when he feels someone grab his elbows.

  
"Why don’t you have some civic pride, and steal from a big business instead of some poor shopkeeper trying to get by ?"

  
He turns around to face the source of the deep voice, and finds himself taken aback by two big, onyx black eyes.


	2. You lived like a river and died like a fire

The kid pulls away from his grasp like his hand is on fire. "Fuck of " he screams, stumbling backward a few steps as he hastily puts some distance between them.

  
Sasuke presses his lips together into a thin line. The teenage boy has blond, disheveled hair, and wears black ripped jeans and a bright orange jacket which even Jiraiya would refuse to put on. Clearly he is just some disadvantaged high-schooler trying to have fun with no resources. Not at all the kind of jerk that Sasuke usually goes after.

He just saw the man and had the urge to stop him, surprising himself in the process. "Shouldn't you be studying for school instead of day drinking, kid ?" He asks.

The blond clenches his jaw and bares his teeth like a dog about rip your arm out. "Fuck off you bastard !" Sasuke rolls his eyes "Imaginative, aren’t you ? Maybe drink some orange juice instead next time."

He turns around and starts to walk away. He’s already far down the street when he hears the guy yell "Bastard !" He must have realized that he repeated himself again, because as Sasuke turns to the right, the boy adds "Pompous jerk !" The Uchiha smirks.

 

* * *

 

There is no light in the building, except for the small red specks from the security cameras. They flicker for a few seconds then the room becomes completely dark. "Ok, the whole system is shut down, go ahea " Tsunade’s voice says in his earpiece. His night vision glasses allow him clear visibility as he progresses down the hallway. The informer had said first to the left. He walks in the room and activates the sensors in his watch. 18 degrees, 55% humidity, perfect for the preservation of paper archives.

The bookshelf he is interested is completely encased in glass. "There must be some kind of opening to let the air trough " The female hacker informs him.  
He kneels on the floor, passing a gloved hand on smooth surface. He searches everywhere close to the ground and finds nothing.

"You done stroking this thing ? You should get a pet or a girlfriend, because this is quite disturbing to watch." He scowls, "Quiet, old hag " Sasuke stands up and looks around, aware that the woman can see everything he does through the camera in his glasses.

  
He jumps on top of the three meters high glass case, and spots the ventilation opening on the ceiling of it. "Great, now the fun part" He grumbles. He hears Tsunade snickering. He lies down, leaning on his elbows, and grabs a clamp and some wire from his backpack. He ties one to the other and lowers the clamp trough the gap, careful not brush anything. Once at the correct level, the clip closes around the red folder. He pulls on the metal string to retrieve it.

  
"Careful, Susano, someone is coming." Tsunade warns. He hastily grabs the folder and jumps on the other side of the shelf on his tiptoes as a man enters the room. In between two books, he peeks at the guardian, who is talking on his cellphone.

"Nope Dan, there is no one anywhere. I swear it must be the damn battery. Wouldn’t be surprised if this dickhead intern had spilled his stupid herbal tea all over it. Fuck, now I have to wake up the director, he’s…" His voice becomes inaudible as he closes the door behind him. Sasuke sighs. Tsunade is humming in his ear "Come on, sunshine, cheer up, time to jump out a window and taste some fresh air." He rolls his eyes.

 

When he returns into his new house, he is welcomed by a strong burning smell. He covers his mouth and nose and goes to the kitchen, from which smoke is spilling. "What the hell are you doing Kakashi ?" He asks as he walks in.

  
The white-haired man is sitting cross-legged on the floor, looking at some black substance resembling gasoline, bubbling inside a cooking pot. The grin on his face is visible from his eyes as the lower part of his face is hidden behind a black mask. "Pasta, for my poster child !" Sasuke resists the urge to make a face, both because of the nickname and because of the smell emanating from what used to be food.

  
"Go to your own damn place if you want to cook." He says as he puts the plate in the sink and fills it with water and soap. "But I feel lonely without you !" The man whines, already searching for something else to eat in the fridge. "At least make me some dinner I am starving." Sasuke sighs, not regretting for one second to have decided to live without his sensei.

* * *

 

Kakashi has finally left him some breathing space, to eat what he cooked for him. Sasuke takes the opportunity to organize some of his stuff. The house is already packed with alarm systems and protection mechanisms, and most items are already in place, thanks to Tsunade. He takes off his mask, outfit, and technical gear, puts on confortable clothes, and starts emptying the few boxes left.

  
It’s mostly childhood stuffs, that he wouldn't want anyone else to touch. A stuffed dinosaur plush given to him by his brother, his mom’s old jumper, his dad’s notebooks, and some family pictures. Pictures of his blood family as well as all his people. He takes out a framed photo of everyone. Kakashi, Tsunade, Jiraya, Itachi the breathing ones. His parents, Obito, Rim, Nawaki, Minato, Kushina, and Shun, the dead ones.

It’s his favorite. You can tell how peaceful, joyous and convivial they were with just one look. It was taken during a meeting, by a young Kakashi who’s left eye only is visible as he holds the camera up. Behind him, Rim has both her arms raised as she seems to be trying to steal it from him. Sitting around the table, there is first Obito who has his spoon raised with soup dribbling from it, and his mouth half-open. His mom is talking to Itachi, who is sitting on Minato’s lap. His brother is hiding his face against the blond man’s chest, with a smirk of his face. His mom is attempting to look stern but she has trouble containing her laughter. Minato is winking at the camera, with a hand on his dad’s shoulder to tell him to turn around. His father is playing cards with Tsunade and Jiraya, and by the look on his face you can tell he is winning. Tsunade is pouting as Jiraya points his finger at her while bursting in laughter. Nawaki has his two thumbs up and smiles gently, trying to sheer up his older sister.

  
At the end of the table, two boys are snuggling in the recliner. Shun’s electric blue eyes are half-closed. The child is falling asleep. He is resting his head on Sasuke’s shoulder and holding his hand. They are both wearing matching yellow pajamas which was probably his mom’s whim. Sasuke is delighted, looking at Shun’s face, his other hand resting on the boy’s golden blond hair. Both the eight years old and the eleven years old have smears of chocolate on their faces.

It’s not that it’s the only nice picture he has of the whole crew, but it is the only one that does not include a certain person, which is why he can bear to look at it everyday. It’s also the last one taken of Shun. Eight is the older he ever was before he passed away.

  
Sasuke had been absolutely distraught by everyone’s death, but Shun had been so clingy with him, so cuddly and warm, the void he left in his life was never filled. Kakachi could annoy him like an older brother. Tsunade and Jiraya sometimes tried their best to be parental figures. But he never had any other friend than Shun, ever.

  
He puts the framed photo on his nightstand, and feels a hand on his shoulder. He barely has the time to avoid the fist aiming for his head, and jumps in a fighting stance. Kakashi throws a few playful punches in the air. "Come on, Uchiha, afraid to get your ass kicked, hm ?" He taunts.

  
It’s the same old tactic as always, distracting him. It’s all he’s been doing, it’s all they’ve been doing. It’s the reason for all this. If they lied down one second and really thought about what they lost, they would never get up.


	3. Kyubi is what they call the pain I can't hide

The four teens walk into the living room, ditching their jackets and shoes in their path. Ino sprawls on the couch to finish reading the newspaper she stole from Shikamaru. Naruto sits next to her, sighing angrily. "You still pissed about that jerk ?" she asks.

  
"He fucking grabbed my arm, just to give me his righteous damn opinion."

  
The girl nods compassionately. She knows Naruto hates being touched, that it enrages and maddens him. What she does not know, is how uneasy and anxious it also makes him feel. Even now, his left arm is still jittery.

He had turned into an expert at ditching and evading human contact, which is more than challenging when you live in a super cramped space with eleven other teens. But the guy had came up close in his personal space and touched him and Naruto’s reaction had been sluggish and slow. Naruto had felt nervous too, staring back into the dark eyes. He had to look up because of their height difference, and the guy was awfully muscular. Not like a bodybuilder, but like someone who could easily snap your neck and totally would. Was it survival instinct then, that made him freeze ? But Naruto was not the type to capitulate when faced with someone stronger than him. He had been famous in juvie, for his outbursts of violence, he would fight everyone who provoked him, even when he ended up at the infirmary five times a day.

  
When Neji had said "Did your parents attached you with a leash to some tree on the edge of a freeway, like they do with unwanted dogs, to abandon you ?" and he had broken every bone in his face, the other had started to keep a distance.

Naruto promises to himself to kick the other guy’s ass if he ever saw him again. He couldn’t become soft now that he was about to become a vagabond in a few months.

  
Ino waves a hand in front of his eyes to get his attention.

  
"Read this, darling, it’s actually fascinating and will help you chill."

  
"Since when are you paying attention to the news ?" He inquires.

  
She pouts "Sai thinks I only talk about trivial things so…"

  
"What an asshole" Shikamaru interrupts, sitting on the window ledge.

  
"You always say I should read more too, Shi !"

"It’s different" The guy answers "It’s good to learn new shit, but it doesn’t mean you’re vain if you don’t. Is he your boyfriend or your instructor ? How troublesome."

  
Naturo nods in agreement "You’re so awesome Ino, don’t let him pressure you."

  
She flushes, dropping the newspaper in his lap and wrapping her arms around her legs. "Whatever, just read it ok ? I want to know YOUR opinion, darling"

  
He smiles at his friend "What is it about ? That Susano thing ?"

  
"It’s not a thing, It’s a person."

  
"Defensive, much ? Should Sai be worried ?" Shikamaru smirks.

  
She laughs "I just think it’s great that someone punishes those all-powerful douchebags. They sent my dad into jail for the dope he took, but someone gave him this, ya know ? To cope with the training. They used my dad to make dirty money and didn’t even bail him out. I hope Susano crushes them, that would be wonderful."

  
"Would it be ?" The three young people turn to Iruka, standing in the doorway with a sour expression on his face. "Don’t be deluded by the easy answer. This group is extremely dangerous. They have used violence, they have tons of blood on their hands."

  
"So what ? " Shikamaru interjects. "Ino’s right, they’re not going after innocent people."

  
"That has not been proven, there was no trial. People should make their statement to the police "

  
"What police ? You mean the private escort ?"

Everyone falls quiet after Naruto’s statement. The law enforcement has never been at the disposal of the poor people in Konoha, but recently they have completely deserted the ghettos, to protect the rich cities. Naruto doesn’t have a boyfriend to impress to make him read the news, but he spent enough time in the streets to notice the changes. The locals became more and more vigilant, the few middle-class families have moved out in herds, lots of stores have closed. He doesn’t really have a sense of community, or respect for all those people who hate and fear him, but it still sucks that things are like this now.

Iruka clears his throat "Anyway, don’t look up to criminals. You kids should do your best at school to change society when you become influential thanks to your hard work !"

  
It’s so righteous and hypocritical, it literally makes Naruto gag. He chooses to walk out of the room, otherwise he might go berserk. But as he approaches the door, Iruka moves to stand in his way. Naruto clenches his teeth.

"Fuck off, Iruka, I’m not in the mood right now."

  
"It does not dispense you from putting away your shoes and jacket with the others. And from being polite either."

  
He turns around, grabs his red sneakers, and starts putting them on. He slips on his orange hoodie as well. "It’s too late to go outside" Iruka warns.

  
Naruto feels his hands shake with rage. He despises it, when others try to take care of him, educate him, control him. He nods towards Shikamaru, and his friend immediately moves out of the way to let him access the open window. They know to let him go when he’s like this. Mitsuki had a name for it. "The kyubi". A cute name. But it’s not cute when he starts beating others to a pulp. He stops being afraid to touch and be touched then, but it gets worst when the hatred goes outwards instead of inwards.

  
He climbs on the window. "Naruto, you step down right now, and we will talk about this."

  
For one second, he stares at Iruka, who has both his hands raised up, palms open, and looks worried.  
He jumps.

 

* * *

 

Neji opens the door and immediately exhale loudly, and then start complaining "With all the money the neighborhood forces us to invest into security, they can’t even keep the hobos away ?"

Naruto smiles "Just saw your dad on the way there, so apparently they don’t exclude the hookers either."

Neji snickers and guides him to the kitchen. "What happened ? Showing up like that, in the middle of the night, did you escape from the orphanage again ?" He asks, and then he yells "Hinata, Naruto’s here !" They both sit around the kitchen table "What do you want to eat ? I got some frozen pancakes, or ramen… Wait, don’t bother to answer, I already know."

Naruto smiles warmly, already feeling a lot better as Neji begins to cook the ramen. He always comes here when he runs away. After they had their big fight, Neji Hyuga had been hospitalized. When he came back, they both had a long discussion (and then several others) which resulted in Neji taking his little sister Hinata and leaving his abusive dad’s house to live together. They didn’t have much resources, as Neji was a student and Hinata a highschooler. They both lived off Neji’s part time job.

Naruto tried not to be too much of a burden on them, but he didn’t have anywhere else to go. He had ran around the block a few time to calm down, but he couldn’t go back tonight. Iruka was probably waiting for him, to lecture him for hours. As much as he dislikes and distrusts the man, he would prefer not to hurt him.

Hinata walks in the room in blue sky pajama. She has the same long silky brown hair and clear eyes than her brother. She spots the blond, blushes, and rushes to the living room.

  
"Your sister’s still pretty shy, hm." Naruto comments. "Hello Hinata, nice PJ’s !" He adds, speaking towards the room she fled to.

  
"Stop that." Neji grumbles "She’s never gonna sleep now. So tell me, what’s wrong ?" He gives him his cup of noodles.

  
"Sorry for barging in, the new monitor is driving me mad " He starts eating, enjoying the warm food after having spent hours outside.

  
"He’s being violent ? Abusive ? Did you fuck up his face ?"

Naruto shakes his head "No it’s not that. He just keeps trying to discipline me with bogus advices and by ordering me around."

"Isn’t that his job, though ?" Neji asks.

"I don’t need this jerk to look after me."

"I know you hate it, but you should let someone take care of you at some point."

He glares at his friend, even though he doesn't really feel antagonized. He knows they will never fight again, Neji is never brutal anymore since he got his sister’s custody.

"Why ? I’ll be on my own soon enough anyway. And I don’t need it."

" Stop spilling this bullshit. You can crash here when you hit eighteen. At worst, find a solution with your friend from the orphanage. Why would you be alone  "

Naruto puts his fork on the table and crosses his arms. "I won’t be the kind of adult that weighs down others, alright ? You baby-sit your sis, and my friends will have a diploma or their first job. But I can’t keep calm when someone brushes me, and that’s my problem. Not yours."

" You sure I can’t do anything to help ?"

"I would ask for your bed, but we both know you need your beauty sleep. I’ll take the couch."

Neji stays quiet for a moment, and finally seems to decide to drop the subject.

"Let me tell Hinata to go back to her room then, I don’t want to have to carry her there when she passes out."


	4. Let me follow you until you learn to hide

Sasuke loves waking up early. His job has made it very difficult, as he works mostly during the night, which is a shame really. In the early morning, the only people in the streets are busy mothers, who walk slowly and sadly, still half-asleep, exhausted, with too much to do in too little time. They don’t notice a young adult jogging on the roofs.  
The HLMs make a very good field to exercise his parkour skills. He’s not spiderman but he has developed a quite impressive ability at jumping from one building to another despite the several meters of space. When Kakashi got his custody, he had taken him first to India, to keep him safe and hidden. That’s where the older man had started teaching him to fight and escape. Sasuke remembers his eleven years old self, jumping from one table to another while avoiding the paper balls that Kakashi was throwing at him. It had been a good distraction from the fact that his always busy and full house was now empty, empty, empty.  
Last time he lived here, there was no HLM’s full of very small apartments and poor people living in them. It was a quite wealthy residential area, with a lot of nice parks and many cultural activities. Over the year, people who use to be middle-class became poor or left. The current government had done everything to foster inequalities. A Large middle-class with smalls lower and higher class meant a lot of people to manipulate or bribe whenever they wanted to do some shady shit, and citizens are more able to resist when they are not worrying about feeding their kids.

As he jumps on a smaller edifice, he spots a young man with an orange hoodie and blond hair. It’s the brat he saw stealing from the store three days ago. This time, he is accompanied by another guy with long brown hair and a very pale skin, who is dressed in a traditional karate outfit. Curious, Sasuke lets himself fall on a first floor balcony to eavesdrop on them.  
"Dude you look about to fall asleep on the sidewalk, just go back to my place." Says the one wearing white.  
The blond answers, with an enthusiastic voice "Neji it’s fine ! You let me sleep in your house, so I really wan’t to walk you to your class. Fucking accept it already. Who are you teaching today by the way ?"  
"The white belts, mostly kids under 10, it should be really calm. Don’t join in, you’ll get bored."  
"Awwww Neji is a SENSEI for the kiddos ! They must look up to you !"  
"Shut up if you don’t want me to give you a lesson right now Naruto." The other answers jokingly.  
Naruto ? The Uchiha smirks. What a dumb name. He has to leap on the floor behind them to be able to continue to listen in. He keeps a good distance no to be caught, but the two guys are talking pretty loudly anyway.

"Your classes are almost always at weird time slots though. Early in the morning or really late at night. The fuck kind of parents drives their kids to karate at 6 am ?" The one named Naruto asks.  
Neji shrugs. "I’m not the one who made the decision, trust me, I would prefer to be in my bed right now."  
"Dreaming about that Tenten girl hmmm." Naruto teases.  
"You’re really fired up now that you’re awake aren’t you ? What about Sakura ? Still no news since you left school ?"  
Naruto spits on the ground in a dejected manner. "still see her when she comes to hang out with Ino. God it’s so embarrassing, I can’t believe I confessed in front of the whole school and she didn’t even knew my name."  
Neji snickers, then puts his hand in front of Naruto’s face, who stops dead in his track.  
"Sorry but I really got to go alone. I’ll never hear the end of it if my colleagues see me get escorted to work by a guy."  
There is a long minute of silence, then.  
"Sure, you don’t wanna look like a fag. Don’t worry man I get it." Naruto says with a large grin on his face.  
Neji smiles awkwardly "Cool. Then see you tonight. Just eat whatever you want if you’re hungry, alright ?"  
"Yeah, yeah, have a good day "  
The two guys start walking in opposite direction, so Sasuke has to hide behind a bench. He looks at Naruto as he progresses down the street, and he’s about to leave his hiding spot when the blond suddenly makes a U-turn and comes back in his direction.  
The Uchiha freezes. Naruto races past him without noticing anything, and runs behind his friend.  
Interesting.  
It’s not difficult for Sasuke to escalate a residence and follow him while he chases Neji.

After a while they find themselves in the Kiri neighborhood, which is the most dangerous part of Konoha. The habitations here are empty except for a few homeless people. The three man slow down in their proceedings, becoming more alert and careful.  
There are two people guarding the door of a deserted building. Both the man and the woman wear disheveled dark clothes. The guy has purple tattoos all over his face and is at least two meter tall and the girl is dressed in a short skirt and red stockings with a deep cleavage and two blond ponytails.  
They let Neji in with a curt greeting.  
Sasuke clenches his teeth when he sees Naruto approach the two guards. What an idiot. The vigilante slides on the wall and watches the scene from behind what used to be a bus stop.  
"Hey !" Naruto says cheerfully, "Sorry, but what’s going on in there  "  
To his credit, he does look angelic, but Sasuke still sighs. Clearly the boy barged in without a plan. So reckless, does he not know how things work in this kind of places ?  
"You better go back to your mummy, brat, we don’t have time to take care of you." The man answers. He advances his arm to push Naruto backward but the guy quickly moves out of his reach.  
" Come on guys, I just wanna know why you’re defending this door like it’s your girlfriend. Is it hookers ? Are you stealing stuffs ? "  
The girl talks this time "What the fuck, do you wanna die ? Go away retard !"  
"I’m just curious."  
The man swiftly grabs Naruto by the neck. Sasuke immediately leaps out of the ancient bus stop and rushes towards him. But before he gets there, the blond teenager punches the man in the face with enough force that the guy hits the door behind him and falls on the ground. The Uchiha is about to take a step back, when the woman takes a knife out of her boot and dashes towards Naruto.  
Fuck.


	5. There is no security anymore

A knife ! A motherfucking knife ! What is this, Kill Bill ? Doesn’t anyone has any respects for the good old fist fights, black eye, bruised cheek, broken ribs, the folklore, the tradition ! Damn, Kiri people are always so extra.

He doesn’t have the time to avoid the blade, so he just throws his arm in the way to avoid getting stabbed in the face. But before the girl turns his limb into kebab meet, a hand grabs her wrist and throws it to her face. She hits herself between the eyes with the knife handle and grabs her head, contorting in pain. 

 

Naruto is amazed at the move. But when he realizes who just saved him, his admiration vanishes.

"Bastard !" He yells to the man.

The bastard smiles to him "Again with the same insult ?" He mocks, grabbing the girl by the back of the neck to throw her on the ground when she tries to to kick him.

He’s wearing a dark grey long-sleeved t-shirt, a black legging and white, expensive shoes. Clearly the guy has nothing to do in this kind of neighborhood. 

"Did you just made a halt in Kiri on your way to the farmers market to buy kale ?" Naruto scoffs.

"I’ll buy some for you, clearly your alcohol consumption made you not only an idiot but also a lousy fighter."

 

Naruto was totally about to answer with a splendid comeback, but they are interrupted when a man with small black glasses and a green hoodie which hides most of his face opens the door. 

"What the fuck, Temari, Kankuro, what happened ?"

The two guards stand up with difficulty, glaring at Naruto and the bastard guy. "They want to get inside." The girl named Temari says, rubbing her forehead. 

"Those two are fucking psychos, let them in, Gaara is gonna love ‘em" Kankuro adds.

The dude with glasses nods. "Follow me" he tells them.

 

To Naruto’s surprise, the black haired man comes with him in the building. 

"Fuck off, the world needs you to go pay fifty bucks for an organic apple or the economy might collapse." He tells him.

"Do you know how dangerous it is, to come here alone and unarmed ?" The man frowns.

He rolls his eyes. Of course Naruto knows, but he has to figure out where Neji’s going all the time. If his friend is in trouble, he has to help. And coming with a gun would not have helped him, the people guarding the door are generally barehanded in case the cops show up, but inside,he knows all those they are coming across will have minimum two firearms on them. 

 

But now he has to make sure the other man doesn’t get hurt, too ! 

"Stay behind me and don’t say anything, I'll keep you safe." He tells the bastard.

"You should worry about your own security, idiot, you couldn’t even stop a knife earlier so I bet you won’t do better with a bullet."

Naruto is fuming. The fuck with this guy ?

"You look like and middle-aged divorced dude, who jogs every morning because he’s not having sex." He says to him.

"Name’s Sasuke"

"What a stupid name."

"You two, shut up !" Green hoodie guy orders as he stops in front of the door. "Do you have no respect or fucking fear ?"

Both of them stay silent, which might not be the best answer in this case. The man with black glasses sighs, and opens the door.

 

Inside, there are about ten persons, sitting around a table, drinking and smoking. Naruto immediately recognizes his friend.

"Neji ! Are you okay ?!" He rushes towards him. The man is now wearing black sweatpants and a white t-shirt. 

"Naruto ? What the hell are you doing here, did you follow me ?"

"Who are they ?" Asks a man with red hair, and green eyes covered in eyeliner. He wears a military jacket and white jeans.

The dude who brought them here answers "They knocked down both Temari and Kankuro to come in."

Neji panics "Please, Gaara, let them go. My friend just wanted to know what I was up to, he won’t say a word."

The one who must be the chief of whatever this is stares at him. His look piercing trough him like a fish hook in a starving goldfish. "Name ?"

"Naruto. What is this little meeting for ?"

"Home ?"

"None. The orphanage. Who cares ?! Is Neji in danger ?"

Gara shakes his head "We’re all in danger. but your friend asked me for this one."

"What ?!"

He turns to Neji, who has a somber expression, not looking at him.

"What kind of drugs are you dealing ?" Sasuke asks, behind him.

Gaara seems to notice him only then. "Are you interested, playboy ?"

"If it’s what I think, you should stop. The government is after you and they’re ready to use violence."

The red headed smirks. "Violence. How scary." He turns back to Naruto. "If you need a place to sleep, and a stable income, after you turn eighteen and they leave you to die on the streets, come here alright ? But don’t fight with my siblings this time, please."

The blond nods absently, still trying to catch Neji’s eyes, who still refuses to look at him. "Shino, show them to the door." The dude with glasses beckons them to leave the room, and Naruto regretfully follows him and Sasuke outside. He wishes he could take Neji with him, but clearly it’s not what his friend wants.

  
When they are both outside in the street, he turns to the man with dark hair and darker eyes. "I won’t say thank you" He tells him.

"Your welcome." Sasuke smirks, waving at him. "Get home safe, don’t just walk into any gangster’s hideout."

"I hope you choke on your quinoa, bastard !"

 

* * *

 

When Neji gets home, that night, Hinata has been asleep for a long time. But Naruto is waiting at the kitchen table, with a beer and a decision.

The Hyuga sighs when he sees him, but accepts the plate of pastas he gives him and sits on the opposite side of the table to eat. None of them speak for a few minutes, and there is only the sound of the fork hitting the plate and the chewing. Naruto isn’t good at silence, so he speaks first.

"Are you okay ?" He asks, and this time the other answers.

"I’m fine, Naruto. I know you think I’ve been dragged into this but Gaara told you the truth, I’m the on who found him."

"But why ?" The blond asks, placing his beer on the table with a bit too much force, which sends drops of the liquid everywhere. 

"Because karate classes and bartending are fucking exhausting jobs, and they barely kept me and Hinata alive. Now I get a mostly chill job with a good income."

"But what is it that you do anyway ?" Naruto asks.

The other shakes his head. "Mostly just security. Your friend was right when he said those government goons are after us, and Gaara is smart enough to defend himself efficiently."

"He’s not my friend. Did you ever get hurt though ? Why didn’t you tell me about this ? I could have helped."

"Like I said, I’m fine. And you never ask anyone for help, why should I ? Don’t give me this bullshit Naruto."

"I thought getting Hinata’s custody meant no more danger."

The man stops eating. "Yeah, I thought too."

Neji stands up and takes his plate to the sink to wash it. 

"I’m going back to the orphanage, tomorrow morning."

The Hyuga stops dead in his motions. "You don’t have to."

"I’m not becoming an new burden for you. Plus, you’re right, we don’t help each others."

Neji turns around with a sad look on his face. "I didn’t mean that, listen.."

Naruto waves his hands to stop him.  It’s okay. I understand, I’m sorry I was nosy. It’s you choice how you make money."

The man with long hair bites his lips, conflicted. "Come back whenever you want." He says.

Naruto nods and smiles brightly "Yeah, of course." But he doesn’t mean it, and both of them know that.

* * *

 

He walks in the orphanage and Ino runs towards him, her arms up around him in a circle which means she would totally hug him if she could. 

He smiles "Was it boring without me ?"

She points a finger to his face, threatening "Five days, darling ! I had to listen to Shikamaru’s annoying rambling in your stead, you owe me !"

Naruto laughs, "I stole you some strawberry ice cream." He gives her the sugary food. 

She takes it happily, kisses her hand and gestures towards his cheek. "Everything is forgotten, come eat it with me, darling."

The Uzumaki totally would have, but Iruka comes in, alerted by the sound of his voice. "Follow me, Naruto." He says with this very detached, cold voice which always means trouble.

He waves at Ino who waves back sadly, and follows the educator into his office. 

He sits on the plastic blue chair and looks at the drawings pinned on the wall, made by the younger kids from the other units.

"I’m glad that you’re back. And that nothing happened to you." Iruka sighs, arranging some files on his desk. 

"What’s my punishment ?" He asks, cutting the benevolent bullshit. 

The older man frowns. "I don’t know. What do you think ?"

"Can you not ? I would like to go see my friends, sir."

The educator sighs again, deeply. "The outside wall of the orphanage is covered with degrading graffitis. I don’t want the kids to see that everyday. How about you paint it, however you like ?"

"Fine. What else ?" Naruto asks.

Another sigh, it’s really starting to get on the blond’s nerves. "Nothing. You can go back to your friends "

The Uzumaki is really surprised at that. He isn’t grounded, or at least asked to do a tons of chores for the next few months. He stands up and walks backward towards the door, suspicious.

"Wait." Iruka says. The blond stops and they exchange a long stare. "Are you okay ? Were you safe out there ?"

Naruto is taken aback at the question and feels his face heat up. He shrugs, because he’s not safe anywhere really, but then nods.

"Good. That’s good." Iruka answers and then he goes back to his files.  
The blond closes the door slowly behind him. For a second there he just felt..

Nevermind. 

_ "You should worry about your own security, idiot. _

But how do you even do that ?


	6. Expensive perfume doesn't mask the smell of blood

"Hello terrorist, your morning work-out took you a while today." Kakashi greets him when he walks into his apartment. 

Sasuke takes off his t-shirt and opens the window to get some fresh air. "First of all : Why did you let me get my own apartment if it’s to be here all the damn time ?"

"I miss you !"

"Secondly," The Uchiha doesn’t even want to answer that "Terrorist ? What the Hell ?"

Kakashi throws a rolled up newspaper at him like he’s some kind of dog. He catches it, recognizing the familiar red and yellow cover of the LeafLandNews. The front page has a drawing of a man covered in blood over the layout of the country’s frontiers. The title is "Susano terrorist kills innocent man. The government calls for national retaliation."

Sasuke frowns. "So they started fighting back."

Kakashi nods. "Say goodbye to your journalist support. They pinned the murder of some PM’s assistant on you. You went from vigilante to terrorist, it’s everywhere."

The younger man walks to the fridge, takes a water bottle, opens it, and drinks, followed by the worried eyes of his sensei. "Aren’t you furious ? Or at least sad ? They’re calling you a murderer."

Sasuke shrugs. "We expected this kind of public manipulation right ? Why should I care what those people think of me ? Most of them didn’t give a shit when Amaterasu disappeared."

"People don’t understand.."

"Then they’re fucking dumb." The Uchiha interrupts "As soon as Itachi is safe, and I get my revenge on those snakes, they can all go fuck themselves if they think I’ll be helping more. If they see me as their enemy, well, good. ‘Cause i’m certainly not their ally."

His sensei’s visible eye looks down sorrowfully, but Sasuke doesn’t want to feel sorry for saying the truth. "Let me take a shower and I’ll cook something." He says instead, but that doesn’t cheer up Kakashi like he hoped it would.

 

As he cleans the warm water cascades on his body, he thinks about Naruto. He isn’t as young as his round face had lead him to believe, if the orphanage is about to kick him out. He must be seventeen.

Three years younger than him.

Being back in this place, it stirs up old memories that Sasuke would rather forget. 

Small arms around his neck, drool on his cheek "When we get older I’ll marry you." Kushina’s distant laughter, the sound of her footsteps, red hair thrown all around them as she hugs them both. She smells like fabric softener, ice cream and pancakes. Like Shun. "Wouldn’t that be great ?! We need to ask Mikoto !" Sasuke wriggles out of their grasp, blushing bright pink. "Don’t tell mommy ! Oni-chan will laugh at me !" Having grabbed his mom’s neck instead, Shun looks at him with his big blue eyes. "Why laugh ?" He asks, his voice a bit slurred because he woke up from his nap not long ago. 

Kushina extends a hand to ruffle the Uhciha’s hair. "Itachi wouldn’t laugh, except if I tickle him. Don’t you want to marry Shun ?" She squeezes her son against her chest, wiping the drool from his face with the back of her arm. "Don’t you want to protect him forever ?"

Shun is still looking at him, not smiling which is really rare, waiting for his answer.

"Of course I will." Sasuke says, feeling himself blush even more.

 

The Uchiha sighs, turning off the water and stepping out of the shower. As he dresses, he hears the sound of two people talking. 

He’s not surprised to see Tsunade drinking bear with Kakashi on his couch. Annoyed, but not surprised. "Why is no one asking to visit ?" He demands, as he opens a beer for himself.

"You would never say yes." Tsunade answers with a falsely dejected tone.

"Exactly."

"I saw the news, so I came to see how you are handling it. After what happened to your brother, I would understand if you needed support." She says gently.

"But I don’t."

"Yeah, Kakashi was just telling me that you’re all emo about it. I should have expected it."

"Did you find out who’s in charge of harvesting the cash ?" Sasuke sits on the kitchen’s counter, at a confortable distance. Tsunade shakes her head in dismay. 

"I did. It’s a guy called Danzo. He’s the leader of the mafia here, and controls everything except Kiri which some thug is keeping out of his reach.

"Gaara." Sasuke supplies, getting a raised eyebrow from Tsunade.

"Yeah, him. He has great tactical skills and talented mobsters, but he won’t be able to hang on forever. Danzo is sending people to fuck with the neighborhood every day and it’s hell to keep it safe."

"What does that have to do with the government ?"

Tsunade has this focused voice she uses in missions "Well, Danzo will soon control the whole city. My bet is that Kiri, Suna,  and Konoha will become even poorer ghettos to detain all the slaves of the country. Iwa will become even richer, and strongly secured by the whole police forces. Ame is too close to Iwa, so it will probably be inhabited by the direct servants and the small remaining middle-class. They’ll need to blame someone for the lack of protection in the ghettos, and if they make the mafia powerful, they can tell the inhabitants that its their fault. They’ll probably say Susano is supporting the mafia, too."

Sasuke realizes his beer is empty, and he needs another one. "But that’s not the endgame, right ?"

Kakashi nods. "No, in the end they’ll turn the rest of the country into one big shit-hole. Even more girls disappearing from the countrysides to be sold off, all those they can’t use for the industry will starve, eventually."

The Uchiha also opens a second beer for Tsunade, who accepts it with a grateful look. "He might only have eyes on the city, but Danzo already controls the black market for the whole country. He does all the Snake’s dirty work, including turning taxes money into their money."

"Then when do we go after him ?" Sasuke asks, already feeling his blood fill with adrenaline. 

"In nine days. We need more time to find his location and come up with a perfect plan. We’re more exposed than ever here, this isn’t India, France or Russia."

Sasuke gives her a "I know damn well it’s not" look. They told him many times that coming back to Konoha would be really dangerous. But they all know everything will end here. 

When the Uchiha thinks about his brother locked up a few kilometers from his home, he wants to go to the green house right now to splatter the whole building with the snake’s blood. "Hurry and find a plan, instead of coming to check on me, then." He tells them."’I’ll make dinner, but after that you both get out of my place."  
He looks away, to not have to see their sad faces. 

* * *

 

Sasuke can’t explain why he came here. As he watches Naruto paint the wall of the orphanage, he tries to find a plausible answer. The sleeves of the teenager’s yellow t-shirt are rolled up, showing scars on his upper arms that looks like cigarettes burns. Sometimes he accidentally drops the paintbrush, which sends little droplets of white liquid everywhere as he swears all the swearwords that ever existed. 

There is only one orphanage which accepts kids that old in the city. It was easy to find. When he looks at the poor condition of the edifice, with walls covered in molds, a few holes in the roof, and a stair entirely maid of rust, Sasuke regrets being so harsh with the blond boy.

He finally decides to talk to him, since he walked all the way there, he might as well. 

"That’s not how you paint." Naruto jumps at least one meter in the air in surprise. Damn, he really needs to make noise when he walks without wearing his mask. The brush falls in the paint bucket, which colors the bond's blue jeans partly white. 

"Fuck, fuck, fuck." He glares at him furiously. "The fuck are you doing here bastard ?!"

Sasuke shrugs, trying to look unsuspicious. Yes. An unsuspicious adult that just happened to walk by a place full of children. Great. "If you make circles when you paint, it won’t look uniform at all. You have to always go upward."

"Yeah, thanks Joanna Gaines. Tell me how we make artsy lamps out of trashcans I beg you."

The Uchiha actually has to hold back a laugh when Naruto accidentally puts his feet in the bucket, and falls backward, getting even more paint on him and the floor. He comes near him and extends a hand to help him up. "You sure look like you could use some help."

The blond scowls at him "Don’t touch me." He stands up and puts some distance between them, taking the bucket, to start painting again further away.

Sasuke takes another paintbrush and opens a second bucket to start covering the messy painting with straight lines. 

Naruto screams "The fuck ? What are you doing ?!"

The Uchiha smirks at him "Helping you fix this shit."

The younger man drops his brush and approaches him agressively, both his fist raised in a fighting stance. "Why are you always messing with me ?"

Sasuke wishes he knew, why the hell is he always going after this kid ? Is it just because he looks kinda like Shun and is the same age ? 

"Shun is dead.’"He whispers for himself. Naruto gets even closer, trying to hear his answer. Suddenly feeling a wave of grief hit him, he pushes the teenage boy backward. He puts the brush on the floor and starts walking away, but the blond runs after him. "Hey BASTARD !"

It’s easy to grab his wrist and stop it from breaking his nose, not difficult to avoid the feet aiming for his knee. Naruto has pretty good fighting skills but Sasuke has been training non-stop since he was eleven. He pushes the other back on the floor. 

"I told you to be careful didn’t I ?" He tells the enraged kid. "Recklessness will only kill you in the end."

He leaves as the blond shouts insults at him until he’s out of breath.  


 

* * *

 

In his earpiece, Tsunade is humming nervously. He knows she is frequently giving intel to Kakashi, who is waiting for him in the car in case he needs backup or a swift escape. The plan for tonight is only to steal Danzo’s computer, which sadly for them he always keeps at this sides according to their infos. 

Sasuke jumps from the edge on the window and lands quietly somewhere the cameras can’t see him. This place has nothing to do with any of the mob hangout he saw before. Everything is clean and shiny. The carpets are probably worth more than the rest of this city. With the white tiles, the paintings on the walls, the cozy red couches, and the fancy table on which a few bottles of champagne are forgotten, one could almost tell just from the decoration that they work with the government. 

He crawls in the ventilation shaft. Those things are probably what he hates the most about the discretion aspect of the missions. Damn tubes are extremely narrow, it’s almost impossible to move, which makes him feel claustrophobic.

"Turn right, then left, and you’ll be right above Danzo’s room. Please Susano, be very careful."

He doesn’t answer because it would resonate and immediately give him away, but he follows his human GPS. Soon, he finds an opening which allows him to see the man. He’s sitting on a large bed, pants down while a blond woman sucks his cock. His expensive suit, sumptuous room, and embroidered blankets don’t make him look less disgusting as his tongue darts out of his mouth to lick his thick wrinkled lips. He grabs the woman by the throat and pushes her away, she falls on the floor and coughs a few time. 

"Why don’t you replace her ?"

Sasuke realizes there is someone else in the room, that Danzo is currently looking at.

"What ?" The voice sounds familiar. The Uchiha tries to see who it is but the aeration isn’t big enough.  
"Suck my dick, my little fox."

There is a silence, then, a breathless "Are you going to tell me if I do ?"

Wait..

Is that Naruto ?


	7. My little fox I found you

"You’re the biggest bastard that… Ever existed.. You complete jerk…"

Naruto has to stop screaming because he can’t breath. Sasuke is already too far away to hear him anyway.

He kicks the bucket that Sasuke opened as Iruka comes out of the orphanage. Paint splatters everywhere including on the educator. Naruto clenches his teeth, ready for the scolding, but the man just looks at him, and then the messy wall, disappointed. He goes back inside and says nothing. 

Naruto feels the weight of guilt crush him, he wasted all the paint and now the kids will have to walk past his shitty work every day. He swears as he realizes that the liquid on his pant is starting to dry and makes it very uncomfortable. Damn, he can’t do anything right, can he ? He stares at the few clean lines Sasuke made without a thought. The man always does everything like its easy, it makes Naruto feel worst than the dog shit on the already dirty sidewalk. 

He fucked up family, he fucked up school, and it’s not like he has any skills to become a dark misunderstood artist, clearly. He was only ever good at fighting.

If only because he’s good at taking the hits and keep going. 

He shivers as he remembers father’s big hands on his small shoulders. Father was his second foster home, and the only man he ever called by that name. He doesn’t know what his real name was, he was never told. He was there from twelve to sixteen years old. Four years. Father had wanted to make him a strong man. Fearless, dangerous, detached. And all Naruto could do was cry and hide under the table. The man had never hurt him, but he would grab his shoulders and shake him harshly when he got mad at him, enough that Naruto always felt dizzy and sick afterwards. Sometimes father was nice, though. He had given him his name because ramen is all Naruto would eat when he first started living in his place. He was always amused by the boy strange habits. Father was unstable, calm until he exploded in blind rage. In the end Naruto caught his anger like a disease and they got him into a different home when a broke a schoolmate’s fingers. ‘"Boys will be boys" father had said, but the judge apparently hadn’t been convinced. Father never touched him when it wasn’t to punish him, and for that Naruto was grateful. He respected that the boy hated being touched, that was more than most people ever did. 

Naruto doesn’t ever remember hating him. Eventually, becoming a hateful man, it had been such a relief. To stop feeling powerless, the blond was taught to use his body as his shield and his hands as a weapon. As his skinned became hard and rough from only being bruised and never caressed, he had felt more secure living there. 

"Kyubi" had said the orphanage’s educator from before, Mitsuki. Like the wild nine-tailed fox from the story. The one that destroys entire villages. But what can you do when you’re a ten meters, scary and unreachable beast living among people ? Nothing else, really, call that a vocation. 

After he showers, he dresses in the sweater Mitsuki had given him. The one with a the fox on his chest. He misses the man. He had been careless and uncaring, but he never made him feel guilty or unfit the way Iruka does.

Naruto sits on his bed for a while. He wonders if he should take all his stuff and just leave definitely. But he decides against it, he doesn’t want to be caught by the cops and sent to juvie. And they’ll show him the door soon enough anyway.  


* * *

 

When the two guards see him approaching the door they both sigh in unison. He raises his hands in a peace offering. "Not here to fight, guys. Your boss told me I could come by if I wanted some work." The blond woman wears a deep cleavage and a short leather skirt today. She laughs "I was sure Gaara would like you. God, little bro is really insane. Fine, you know the way I guess.’ She opens the door for him.

They don’t call Gaara boss, Naruto realizes when he sits with him a few of his men. They use his real name. The blond quite likes that. The man is dressed in normal clothes, a black hoodie and black jeans. But he still looks impressive with his green eyes, red hair, and the tattoo on his forehead and across his arms, in red ink which would make him look incredibly scarred from far away. He also has a gun in his waistband, and another on the table within his reach. 

"If the invitation is still open, I’ll be in need of a place to crash in a few month."

The older man smiles a little, ‘"We’re not a shelter, though."

The blond does not smile back, he knows what he’s risking already. "Yeah. So what do you want me to do ? I’ll prove myself, so just tell me."

There is a few "Ooooh" and "Aaah" from the people sitting around the boss. The guy waves his hands to order everyone to shut up. "You’re a brave one aren’t you ?" He smirks.

Naruto chooses not to answer that, and the other smirks even more, showing his teeth. 

"Well, there is a man. See, he’s trying to kill me." Gaara pulls on his clothe and shows a scar shaped like a bullet on his collarbone. "It’s quiet annoying. But he always recognizes the faces of people I send to spy on him. I’d be happy to accept anyone who can get me infos on him."

Naruto nods. "Fine, who is he ? I'll bring you his whole internet history with the porn too if you want."

Gaara is not smiling at all anymore, bringing up this subject seems to have completely sobered up his mood. The people around him have lowered their faces and look angry too. "It’s no joke, Naruto, you need to be careful. All I know is that his name is Danzo, and he’s staying at the last floor of the Aki five stars hotel, in the Iwa district."

That’s not a place Naruto ever went to, even if he had money to spare back when there was still public transport in Konoha, he doesn’t want to have to deal with the police there. "Noted. I’ll bring back something useful. But in exchange, you need to promise me something."

Gaara raises his eyebrows. "What ?"

The blond swallows, but his mouth is dry. "When i’m in your gang, I want you to leave Neji out of the dangerous business. I’ll do whatever you would order him. I’m a way better fighter anyway, and he has a little sister who needs him."

Another smile from the red haired "Sure. Why not. If you bring me good infos, we have a deal."

Naruto exhale in pure relief, he feels way better about this now.

"We have a deal."

A few days later, it’s the girl who was guarding the door, Temari, who drives him to the hotel. The teenager is stunned when they drive past the huge buildings and clean, green parks. The street lights form luminous webs of white through the windows of the moving vehicle. Everything is lightened and flashing like the people who built this place where terrified of the dark. The streets are large and filled with crowds, with no places to hide and cameras everywhere. Naruto would be completely overwhelmed to live here. He couldn’t take two steps without brushing someone accidentally, it would drive him completely insane. Who would chose this life ?

They park in front of one of the tallest building around there. It’s really pretty, again in a deliberately impressive way. The hotel walls seem to be telling Naruto that he’s less than nothing, the doors like the cold eyes the of his teachers when he was in school. Telling him he would never belong. 

It’s fine, he wasn’t planning on entering through the door anyway. 

* * *

It turns out, he’s not good at being discreet either. Well, anyone who knows him would have told him that if he had cared to ask, really. That’s a classic case of can-only-blame-yourself.

He manages well enough to break through the kitchen’s window and sneak in the personnel’s elevator.But it turns out, there was a reason why Temari had seemed disgusted by the idea of getting near Danzo. The women look drugged out of their mind, most of them can’t even sit normally. So what can Naruto do except try to get them out of this fucking hell.

"What the fuck, what the fuck, what the fuck."

He keeps muttering this as he tries to get a VERY young girl to stand up, to bring her outside. He only realizes he has been found out when he hears the click of a gun to his head.

The tall man brings him to a door. Another guy at the door knocks on it and opens it to ask if they should bring the "intruder" inside. When the door is open a thick sent of sex and sweat hits Naruto’s nose. He’s not generally disturbed by sex, but he still feels himself starting to shake uncontrollably. 

They push him in the room, and the blond doesn’t even react to the touch. Inside, a man is sprawled out on the couch. 

He’s about fifty years old, and wears a white suit, with the pant pulled down so a young woman can suck his dick. She doesn’t seem drugged, but her hands are clutching the bedsheets really hard in a way that makes Naruto want to vomit. Danzo seems pleasantly entertained by his reaction. His wrinkly face and grey hair make him look like a happy grandpa except his eyes show a viciousness Naruto has never witnessed before. He regrets not having talked about his new job to Shikimaru and Ino, they would have beaten some sense into him and he wouldn’t have died there like an idiot. Fuck, they think he’s at Neji’s place. He hopes Neji won’t get blamed for this shit.

"Shun." Danzo tells him, and Naruto stops breathing.

* * *

There is a moment of silence, and then the old man laughs, howling like a dying wolf. He grabs a handful of the woman’s hair and pulls a few times. "That doesn’t ring a bell ? The medical recordsays you didn’t even remembered your name when they found you."

Naruto feels completely frozen, as if ice was running in veins instead of blood. Being called by this name, it made his knees weaken like all strength had been drained out of him. He wants to cry, which he hasn’t done for years. "Who is that ?" He asks.

"Someone dead. Or so we thought. See, it’s pretty rare for little boys to survive being thrown from a cliff. But when I heard that Gaara has « adopted » a new recruit, I made research. And how surprising, you look exactly like your dad. The man was smart, I give him that, his plan was perfect to make sure we wouldn’t think you’re alive."

 

_ "Shun please be silent, please don’t cry, stay here until mom comes back." _

 

He has to grab a chair near him not to fall down, panting heavily as the voice resonates in his ears. "Who were they.. My parents.. What happened to them ?" He almost can’t form the words, his throat feels like he swallowed a mouthful of sand. The social worker had told him he had probably been abandoned, that there was no one searching for him according to the police. His whole world would collapse if his parents had loved him, even just a little.

He must have looked really distressed, and desperate for an answer because Danzo almost sounds apologetic when he tells his men to leave them alone. He then grabs the woman by the throat and throws her on the ground. She falls and coughs, spitting some white liquid and blood. 

"Why don’t you replace her ?"

"What ?"

"Suck my dick, my little fox."

For a terrifying instant, Naruto thinks the mafia made enough research to know even his childhood nickname, but he realizes Danzo is referencing his hoodie. The one Mitsuki gave him. The only gift ever got from an adult.  
That he remembers of, at least.

"Are you going to tell me if I do ?"

Danzo smirks, but it’s not a recognition of his strength like when Gaara does it. Instead, it’s a recognition of his weakness. A big part of Naruto wants to cry an beg to be released, but a bigger part want to know who Shun is and if his parents wanted him. If his parents touched him like he was clean and needed. God, he could suck a thousand dicks to know this.

"Belligerent, aren’t you ? Even when you know you’ve already lost. You’re really your father’s son, little fox."

Suddenly, all the light go out, and they are in complete darkness. There is the sound of something heavy falling in the hallway, and then the door opens and a fucking huge painting is thrown above Naruto’s head. It hits Danzo directly on the head. The manyells and stumbles, trying to cover his dick. 

Everything happens really fast, the person who has just destroyed some seriously expensive art grabs his arm and forces him to run. He takes him to a fancy lounge dimly lighted by the fireplace and blocks the door with a chair. Naruto can see a black leather jacket with a hood. The large shoulders indicate him that it’s probably a man, but he can’t make out any details, the adrenaline make his vision blurry, or is he crying ?

The person is still holding his forearm in a bruising grip. He brings him to the window and Naruto barely has the time to scream before he’s thrown in the void. 

But the guy is apparently some kind of modern spiderman, as he grabs Naruto’s torso and slides down a metallic string which must be electric of they would have already fallen from their combined weight. During the scariest minute of the blond’s life they are actually falling from the very high building, but as they reach the floor the mechanism slows down and the person jumps easily on the ground. Naruto barely walks a few steps away from him before he falls of his knees and throws up everything he can. 

"I don’t know, stop screaming in my hear or I’ll take off this damn earpiece." The man whispers near him.

He grabs him by the elbow and the teenager lets himself being dragged in a nearby alley. Again he puts some space between him and the individual as soon as he lets him go, but he’s already too shocked to be in any state to fight anyway. His muscles don’t even contract like his body has forgotten every survival instincts. He leans on the wall and tries to steady his breathing.

Nearby, some men are yelling "Susano !" "Susano !" "Find him !"

He realizes it’s not him they are chasing after. 

Naruto is terrorized when the man approaches him. His whole face is hidden and it makes him look like a monster from a video game, the kind that Iruka would confiscate at first sight.

He reaches for Naruto's chest and the blond takes a step back, so panic-stricken that he doesn't even try to run away.

Then the vigilante murmurs, with a very deep voice "Please let me."

Naruto answers with a noise of aghast incomprehension, and the man adds "Check that you're not hurt." 

The younger man realizes Susano is probably keeping his voice low to make it unrecognizable. Now that he’s closer, he sees that he doesn’t wear a mask on his eyes, but black tinted glasses. His mouth and neck are hidden by the pulled up fabric of his turtleneck pull over. He also has leather gloves, that Naruto can feel against his neck as he seems to take his pulse.

The blond is still to stunned to react when the other unzips his hoodie to check for wounds. His legs finally give up on any semblance of dignity and he falls against the other man’s chest, who catches him and holds him up easily. "Do you have any way of going back home ?" He whispers in his ear. 

Naruto needs a minute to actually remember Temari, who must be freaking out in the car. He’s shaking badly enough that its hard to talk "Parking. Lot." he eventually manages. 

The man drags him there, almost lifting him of the ground sometimes. He smells good, like mint and soap, and his body is really warm, Naruto distantly notices. Temari recognizes him and brings the car near them. She opens the passenger’s door and shouts "Holly fucking damned shit what happened ? Are you actually fucking Susano ?"

The man sits him in the car and fastens his seatbelt for him. "Bring him to safety, or Gaara will have one more group chasing him down."

He shuts the door with a resonating bang, and Temari does as she’s told. 


	8. I'll protect you

There is a silence, then, a breathless "Are you going to tell me if I do ?"

Wait.. 

Is that Naruto ?

Sasuke crawls forward until he can see a short guy with blond hair. Fuck, this idiot, what has he got himself into this time ?

"Belligerent, aren’t you ? Even when you know you’ve already lost. You’re really your father’s son, little fox."

"Susano." Tsunade sounds panicked, which happens rarely enough to make the hair on Sasuke’s arms stand. "This boy… He looks a lot like Minato when he was younger. He.. He looks exactly like him."

Sasuke is already in the hallway, knocking down the guards. "Yeah. I noticed that. But he’s dead. They’re all dead. Stop thinking about…" He has no time for this right now. "Turn off the lights." His night vision goggles allow him to see the now dimly lit room as he grabs a huge paint, opens the door, and throws it on Danzo. Luckily there is no more guards. He grabs Naruto’s arm. 

 

He takes him back to the salon from which he came. His cable is still hanging in front of the window. He throws him off the window and puts an arm around his chest as he secures them both with his other hand. It’s not easy but he manages to bring them on the floor and retract the grappling iron. Naruto seems pretty shook, as he takes a few wobbly steps and then falls down, throwing up. Sasuke notices that the lights are on, inside the hotel. They must already be tracking them. Now that she’s not hacking, Tsunade is fully freaking out. "Susano, why would Danzo know this boy ? Why would he be in his bedroom ?"

"I don’t know, stop screaming in my hear or I’ll take off this damn earpiece." He keeps his voice low, hoping Naruto won’t recognize it. 

 

When he hears footsteps approaching, he grabs the blond by the elbow and bring him in a desert alley. The boy steps back, breathing with difficulty. He stares at him with this childlike, petrified expression, which is too much like Shun not to make Sasuke want to hug him. 

Sasuke whispers "Please let me." moving closer, and reaching out, but Naruto reflexively curls backward like a cornered animal, making a sound of incomprehension. 

He adds "Check that you’re not hurt."

He touches his neck until he can feel the rapid pulse under his fingers. 

Sasuke has no idea why he’s doing it, when he unzips the orange hoodie to search for traces of blood. He had grabbed him pretty harshly earlier and god knows what Danzo has done to this kid. 

  
Suddenly, Naruto collapses against his chest. For a second the vigilante thinks he passed out but looking down he sees that the blue eyes are still opened. He’s shaking tremendously. Sasuke holds him closer. "Do you have any way of going back home ?" He asks. For a moment the blond only makes small sounds of dismay. Eventually he manages to articulate "Parking. Lot."

Sasuke almost has to carry him there. Naruto grabs a handful of his jacket and nestles against him, letting him take his weight, shivering and stumbling all the way. The Uchiha can’t ask questions or be mad at him right now. 

 

A blond woman brings a car near them and Sasuke hesitates to shoot her but Naruto looks like he recognizes her. She opens the door and shouts "Holly fucking damned shit what happened ? Are you actually fucking Susano ?" Sasuke makes the teenager sits in the car and hesitates one second before he fastens his seatbelt for him. The blond’s hair is messy, and his face covered in tears, and the Uchiha has to stop himself from wiping them off. He recognizes the woman now, she was one of Gaara’s guards. "Bring him to safety, or Gaara will have one more group chasing him down." He tells her, and shuts the door.

 

* * *

 

When he walks in his apartment later that night, he’s not surprised to see Tsunade and Kakashi sitting on the ground. The only light comes from the screen of their computer, which combined with their haunted expression, gives them a very ghostly look.

"I know I failed the mission." He tells them, but they still seem abnormally tense. 

Kakashi speaks first. "Grab a glass, I’ll pour you some sake."

Sasuke frowns, he’s not usually allowed to drink strong alcohol, since ha has to stay alert at all time. But he does what he’s told and sits with them, swallowing his drink.

There is a long silence during which Kakashi and Tsunade exchange a look worth an hour of debate. "Tell me." Sasuke orders. 

"I made research on that boy, Naruto." Tsunade says, her voice is dull and her eyes dead. "He’s an orphan."

"I know that. I’ve met him a few times before."

"The police records says that they found him in an abandoned warehouse, at the age of eight. Not far from here. He was there alone for four days and almost died of dehydration. The trauma caused an important amnesia, he even forgot his name."

Sasuke, who was holding his forgotten glass in mid-hair, lets it slip from his hand. The glass rolls under a couch with a dreary sound. "You’re wrong." He tells his two sensei. 

Kakashi shakes his head. "He looks the same. What if Minato and Kushina had known about the murderers ? They couldn’t have been sure who to trust back then. The only way to make sure that Shun would survive would be to fake his death. They targeted the kids first."

"Itachi and Nawaki." Tsunade sounds like she’s about to cry. That hasn’t happened in a while, but she generally has a hard time to stop when she does. Sasuke knows that. 

"If they had somewhat known about the bomb in their cars." Kakashi continues "They could have planned this. Maybe they sent a message and we never got it. Or maybe they realized too late that the two of them had to die to make it believable." He shakes his head. "Maybe they knew they would die but now how, and were taken by surprise before they could put their son to safety."

There is a loud crash when Sasuke hits the floor. He stands up and looks down at the two adults. "Shun is dead." His voices his muffled by his clenched teeth. "You’re making this harder. On all of us. He’s dead and he’s not coming back."

"You don’t think there is any possibilities that Naruto is Shun ?" Kakashi asks, finally. 

Sasuke walks to the balcony and steps outside, his muscles are tense like he’s about to fight again, and he has to breath some fresh air or he might snap and do something he would regret.

Naruto ? He’s been following him around more than once. Blond air, blue eyes, stubborn and daring, funny, and cute. 

But skinny, small, and scarred. Used to combat and violence. Brutal, quick to anger, cynical and distant.

No.

"I need a proof." He says, without turning back.

"I still have some of Shun’s stuff. If you get me DNA, we can be sure." Tsunade answers.

She’s gloomy. None of them dare to be hopeful, Sasuke realizes. At best they all royally fucked up by letting Minato and Kushina’s son alone and unprotected for nine fucking years. 

"Fine. Let’s do this."

 

* * *

 

He crawls in the tiny space, realizing as he does that it’s the first time he ever sneaked in someone’s bedroom. 

That’s rather reassuring, he tells himself as he stares at the blond boy asleep in his bed. He’s not fucking Edward in Twilight, what kind of creep does that shit anyway. 

Naruto looks angry, even when he is sleeping. He’s frowning and showing a bit of teeth and his fists are clutching his blankets like it offended him. 

The bedroom is cold, almost undecorated except for a framed picture of the blond with what must be his friends, in school. There is only a bed, a nightstand, and a closet. It’s impersonal, like a prison cell. 

Sasuke doesn’t have to search long to find a hairbrush and collect the DNA. He puts it in a plastic sheath.  
He kneels in front of the bed, and stares at Naruto’s rising and falling chest. 

 

As he stays there. As he can't move away. the Uchiha realizes that he doesn’t need the test. Because he's been lying to himself all along. Somewhere inside him, he had known the first time he saw the small teenage boy steeling beers that day. Had recognized him on the spot. 

This feeling, this impulse to stay, and come back to this man. Every time.

Shun.

 

The tears fall from his eyes but he doesn’t try to stop them. He looks at the tiny scars on the knuckles of the boy’s hands. He must have fought hard and often. 

Shun was so soft. Kind and innocent, peaceful. He would burt into tears whenever Itachi and Sasuke played fight. He couldn’t bear violence, and now..

 

When the thought of Shun’s death became too hard to even conceive, Sasuke had told himself that at least he had died quickly. Fragile and young Shun must have been knocked down by the explosion. He never saw his end approach as he fell in the sea. He never suffered and must have been laughing with his parents until the very end. 

But this. Trauma, amnesia, twice took away from his foster parents for mistreatments. Sent to juvie for repeated assaults. A broke orphanage which would kick him out in a few months. Kicked out of school, too. A childhood in one of the poorest places of the country.

The guilt is almost enough to make him choke. He should have known, that his best friend was still alive. He should have protected him. How his parents must be ashamed of him, who failed to protect both Shun and Itachi. 

His fingertips lingers in Shun’s hair. They still feel the same as back then, soft and disheveled. Under his touch, the blond relaxes a little. "I got you now." Sasuke whispers.

 

"I got you Shun, I’ll protect you I promise."

 

 


	9. Safety is a complicated concept

Naruto's body won't stop tingling. It's throbbing, like all the blood came to the surface, like a few layers of skin have been peeled and now he's raw and exposed. Fighting and fleeing and being thrown off a building he can handle, but not that amount of touch. Maybe it was the shock or the adrenaline, but he had felt no anger and no sickness when Susano has touched him. 

He hasn't let anyone hold him like this for.. For as far as he remembers. Whichis probably why he can't get him out of his head. 

 

There is also the fact that he may have found someone who know who his parents are. Maybe Danzo was just trying to fuck with him, figuratively and literally. But if he had wanted to force Naruto to give him a blowjob, he could have done it just by pointing a gun to his head. It makes no sense to Naruto. But nothing in this place did. The stoned girls, the violence and disdain. It was nothing like fighting among teenagers in the hood. 

 

He thought he was tough enough to at least do this job, work for Gaara. But he'd fucked up on his first mission. When Temari had drove him back to his place, still crying and in shock, she had told him not to come back to Gaara's hideout. 

 

He's been hitting the punching ball all morning when Shikamaru comes find him. He waves until Naruto stops and takes off his earpieces. 

"Iruka says you have to come eat lunch." 

"Did he say how I'll be punished ?"

"Nope. Still nothing."

It's been three days, and Naruto still doesn't know what's planned for him. It's really starting to annoy him, isn't the whole point of a punishment to do it after you've broken the rules ? Maybe he ran away so much that Iruka just stopped even pretending to give a shit. 

He follows Shikamaru upstairs and to the canteen, where they sit with Ino and Choji.

All the age groups are eating together today, like every Sunday. Naruto has to stand up a few time to help the younger kids cut their meat or open a soda bottle. When he comes back, Ino is talking around a mouthful of fries. "I'm telling you : He's a model." 

"He's not a model." Shikamaru answers, annoyed.

"Who's a model ?" Naruto asks, grabbing the ketchup as it miraculously landed on their table.

"He's NOT a model."

"The new guy." Ino points in the direction of the staff table. They also get to eat together every Sundays. "He's sitting facing Iruka, look, he's so hot."

Naruto stretches on his chair to try and see him but Iruka is blocking his view. "Well they'll introduce him after dessert I guess. Do we know which age group he's responsible of ?" 

"I hope it's us." Ino is literally jumping on her chair. 

"Don't you have a boyfriend ?" Naruto smirks at her. 

"Oh Sai !" The three boys laughs as she only seems to remember him now. "Stop it guys, I love my boyfriend. He'll come here tomorrow after class by the way, Iruka said yes. So I'll introduce him to you Naruto."

The blond shrugs. He doesn't really like meeting high schoolers, except for his friends. They generally act arrogant, like they're better than him just because they're maybe going to university. Fuckers. 

"Hey look." Shikamaru waves his phone in front of their faces too fast for anyone to read anything. "Speaking of your boyfriends. Apparently, some hotel owner has filled a complaint against this Susano guy, because he illegally entered one of the rooms. It's not that far from here."

"He what ?" Ino snatches the phone from his hand. "It says he hurt numerous clients and fled. Oooh you think that's true ?"  
Naruto stays silent. He didn't told anyone about what happened. He doesn't want to worry them, and the part about his family, that's too painful to be mentioned. Beside, Ino wouldn't let him sleep if she knew that he met Susano and even got saved by him. 

 

After they've finished cleaning the tables, they all sit again to hear the announcements. Kurenai, the director of the orphanage, introduces two young girls who just arrived at the orphanage. After that, she reminds them that the temperatures are going to drop soon and anyone who doesn't have a coat should ask their educator. The three educators of the orphanage, Guy for the younger kids, Azuma for the pre-teens, and Iruka for the teenagers, are lined-up behind her, but Naruto doesn't see any new guys. 

Until Kurenai makes a hand gesture and another man joins the four of them. Naruto has to hold his breath not to scream in surprise. 

"What the hell is this bastard doing here ?" He whispers, making Shikamaru raise an eyebrow at him.

Sasuke is wearing a white shirt and black pants today. As he stands next to Kurenai, he looks in his direction. For a second, Naruto thinks he's seen him, but he looks away like nothing happened. 

"We also have a new educator." The director explains. "Sasuke is studying to become a teacher, and he's going to work with us part-time for his internship. For now, he'll be in Iruka's group."

"YES !" Ino puts both hands on her mouth and has the decency to blush as a few people turn to stare at her. 

"Would you like to add anything ?" Kurenai turns to the young man next to her. Sasuke smiles, a perfect smile Naruto has never seen before, and says "I'm happy to be here with you, I hope we will all get along."

 

He really tries to avoid Sasuke. He gets his shoes from his room while Iruka is showing him around, and convinces everyone to spend the afternoon outside. It lasts until 7pm, when Ino decides that she's hungry, and it's too cold outside, and she wants to meet the new educator. They walk back to the orphanage, Naruto grumpily lagging behind. 

Shikamaru walks next to him. "You know this guy ?" He asks. 

"He's an asshole." Naruto tells him.

"Hey, don't fight with him, alright ? You're already in deep shit because you ran away twice in a month. If they fire you from here, you're going back to juvie, dude."

Naruto nods, although he doesn't know how he'll stay calm with this bastard in his place. 

When they arrive to the living room, a few other teens are already eating while Sasuke and Iruka are chatting near the counter. Ino yells "We're back !" loud enough that they both turn to them. 

Sasuke really looks at him then, and Naruto is too taken by surprise to do anything. But the man smirks a little before he turns back to Iruka.

Bastard. 

 

After he has showered, Naruto plans on going directly to his room and skipping the traditional Sunday movie night. Sadly for him, Sasuke is talking with Ino in the middle of the hallway.

"So what kind of teacher are you ? A sports teacher ? You look like you train a lot." 

The man is still smiling this weird-ass perfectly symmetric smile. "Thank you. Actually, I teach French."

"Woaw really ? Will you teach me some French later ?" Ino is twirling her hair around her finger, no doubt trying to look cute. 

"Sure. But aren't you going to be late for the movie, Ino ? And you too, Naruto ?"

He turns to the blond man as he was trying to discreetly enter his room. 

"Thanks, but I've already seen the Ice Age about a thousand time." He says, hoping Sasuke will let him go.

But that would be too kind for the bastard. He approaches him, telling Ino to join the other kids downstair first. 

He gets closer and closer until they're only a few inches apart. He's staring in his eyes like he's trying to scan his soul, and Naruto won't look away, won't let him win, clenching his fists with contained anger.

"Nice PJ's." The raven says eventually.

Surprised, Naruto looks down at his second-hand pyjamas. There is a pink frog with a heart on its head on his top. He blushes. 

"Since when do they hire bastard like you as teachers ? You should study something else while you still can." He blurts out to hide his embarrassment. 

Sasuke shrugs. "They hired me here pretty easily."

"Thats 'cause no one wants to do this job. This place is hell, let me tell you."

"Yeah I've been told that some kids are causing troubles. Running away, worrying everyone."

 

That makes Naruto take a step back, his back hitting the wall. Worrying ? Who was worried ? 

He shakes his head, that's bullshit. "That's none of your business."

"But it is, right ? I'm responsible for you now. So no more meeting with the mafia, stealing from stores, or being out past ten."

"Fuck off." Naruto tenses up when Sasuke raises his hand, but he puts it on the wall behind him. He leans in until they're very close, and looks down at him as he's taller. 

"I won't. Like I said, your safety is my problem now."

For some reason, the blond shivers. He has the urge to let himself collide against Sasuke's body. To reach out and grab the arm that's encircling him, not too hurt but just to touch. 

Luckily, the older man steps away before he does anything stupid and embarrassing. 

"Good night then." He says, almost kindly.

Naruto turns around and almost crashes into the door in his hurry to get inside his room. 


	10. Unforgivable

Sasuke never imagined he would see Shun again. After his murder, he had gone on the bridge and looked down, to the river in which his best friend's body should have been. He came back there everyday before they left the country, convinced it would be the closest he would ever be to the boy again. 

 

But now, he gets to see him three days every week. Three days. 

Sunday, Monday and Tuesday. It's on his schedule, in red letter. "Shun." . Now that Danzo knows that he is alive, they have to watch over him 24h/7 in case he tries something. But Sasuke still has to do his vigilante work, so he does half of the week and Kakashi does the other half. 

 

He could have spied on him from outside, like Kakashi is doing. It's not like Shun has any skills which would allow him to realize he's being followed. But Sasuke still asked Tsunade to give him a fake identity and applied at the orphanage. 

 

Three days a week, he gets to talk with Shun. He meets his friends. He walks into his house. 

It's better than what Sasuke had feared. The educator team seem to genuinely care about the kids, even though they lack the financial resources to give them more than the strict minimum. Shun's friends seem nice, if a bit atypical. Shikamaru and Choji are a lot calmer than the two blonds of the group. 

 

Ino, it turns out, was the problematic one. Not only would she always try to get his attention whenever he went near Shun, but on Monday evening, she brought her boyfriend.  
  
Sasuke had been drinking coffee with Iruka -the man was really nice, and had so many things to say about Shun- when they heard Ino screaming.

"Sai ! Don't touch him !"

Then, the sound of someone falling on the floor.

Iruka and Sasuke both ran to the living room where they found the dark haired, skinny teenager who must have been Sai on his ass, holding his left cheek. Shun was standing in front of him in a fighting stance, breathing heavily. 

"What happened ?!" Iruka asked, rushing to the wounded boy's side. Say allowed him to see the nasty bruise that was rapidly forming on his face. "This guy his crazy. He punched me for no reason." He said, slurring a little as his flesh was already starting to swell. 

Shun approached to hit Sai again, but Sasuke rapidly moved between the two teenagers. The blond didn't calm down a bit upon seeing Sasuke, on the contrary, he looked even more ready to fight. His clenched fists were shaking, and his eyes were wet. Sasuke held both his palms up. "Are you okay ?" he asked.  
That had made Shun finally look at him. He lowered his hands. "Leave me alone, bastard." He said before storming out of the room.

"Naruto, wait !" Ino tried to run after him, but Iruka grabbed her by the elbow.

''I will make sure he doesn't run away again, stay here and explain to Sasuke what happened."

 

* * *

 

And so Sasuke was forced to stay with the blond girl, rubbing her back as she was sobbing on his shoulder. In the middle of her crying, she told him that she had asked her boyfriend to come to meet Naruto. Sai had made a mean joke about the blond man being kicked off the school, and Shun had retorted with something that had made Ino laugh. Sai apparently got angry that his girlfriend laughed at him, and punched her shoulder. "Not violently" Ino said. But Shun went to stop him and that's when Sai pushed him back. 

 

The teenage drama wasn't particularly interesting to Sasuke. But he was angry that Sai had upset the blond. Even Ino, who clearly wasn't realizing that her boyfriend sucked.

After Sai left, he told her that.

Wow, he really got into his educator's role too fast.

She didn't seem to give a shit about what he said, but when the other guy, Shikamaru, arrived and told her exactly the same thing, she nodded like it made complete sense, crying in his neck.

  
Sasuke sighs. finishing to write the incident report. There are tons of these forms in Iruka's desk, and lot of them have Naruto's name on it. 

  
He fights a lot. He fights, and then he runs away. 

 

There is a pattern to it. Naruto fights to defend his friends or to stop any physical contact. The physical contact thing is highlighted in his file. It's the part that Sasuke really doesn't like. How did that happen ? Shun used to be so clingy that Sasuke doesn't remember ever being with him without the blond holding on to him one way or another. 

 

It's disturbing.

 

* * *

 

 

He finds the man in the basement of the orphanage, beating a punching ball. 

When he notices Sasuke, he stops and rips off his earphones. Sasuke expects him to be angry, or at least on edge, but he looks at him with only a slight annoyance.

"Are you gonna lecture me or something ?"

Sasuke shrugs. Shun isn't hurt, that's what matters.

"You box ?"

"Yeah." The blond looks down at his hands, flexing his fingers thoughtfully. "Well. Not really. I never took a class, I mean."

"Wanna spare ?"

"You box ?" Naruto questions back.

"No, I do Taijutsu. But I can try it."

He grabs a pair of gloves and puts them on. Naruto approaches him slowly. "I've never spared." he admits. 

He's calmer than Sasuke has never seen him since he lost his memory. Someone must have helped him regain his composure, and that someone isn't Sasuke.

"Just don't hit too hard. Ah, except if you do want to kick me." Sasuke answers. 

Naruto smiles a little. "Don't provoke me."

He throws his right fist forward and Sasuke blocks it easily. He imitates the speed Shun uses to make sure the blond can follow his movements and dodge. 

They only spare for a minute before the blond says "Let's do it without the gloves."

There is an edge of something in his voice that makes Sasuke obey, even though he doesn't like the idea of hitting the other with his bare hands.  


The idea slows him down enough that he lets Naruto punch his shoulder. It doesn't even hurt a little, and the blond grins happily. He lets him punch his chest and jaw the same way. Shun lowers his hand a little "You're too slow." he comments, still smiling. 

He goes for his shoulder again and Sasuke takes a small step back like he wants to avoid the impact. Naruto grabs his t-shirt instead of hitting. 

Sasuke lets the other pull him forward. They don't move. The teenager fingers still holding the fabric near his neck. His blue eyes meets Sasuke's and for a second, there is something that is most definitely Shun in the way he looks at him.

Then the blond lets him go and walks towards the door. "You suck at boxing." He declares before he slams the door behind him.

 

* * *

 

"So how's babysitting ? "

Sasuke almost jumps, it's been a while since Kakashi managed to sneak on him. He had been way too lost in his own thoughts.  
"I'm in charge until Tuesday night." 

The older man sits next to him on the edge of the orphanage's roof. It's a good spot, which allows him to see anyone who would try to enter while being invisible to those who might look up. He spends his nights there.

"I would never deprive you of your time with sweet Shun, I came to check on you."

Sasuke relaxes. It makes sense that Kakashi would be worried about the Uchiha hanging out with his childhood best friends when the other completely forgot about him.

"I'm fine."

Kakashi sighs. "I agreed that protecting Shun is our priority for now. But don't forget that they're also looking for you."

"I'm not hiding."

"Don't forget about the plan, Susano."

Sasuke frowns, although his mask wouldn't let Kakashi see it. "Don't think for a second that Shun being alive has taken an once of my hatred towards them." 

In the contrary. "I've never spared." Shun had said. Then how did he learn to fight ? How much of his blood was spilled in that process ? 

It makes Sasuke sick to even think about it. 

"When are you going to tell him the truth ?" Kakashi asks. 

Sasuke appreciates that he and Tsunade left this decision to him. Because Shun will always be his responsibility first. "It's a lot. I want togive him some time. He's still young."

"He might hate you when he realizes you've been hiding your true identity. As Sasuke, and as Susano too." 

"He might hate me regardless. I can't decide that for him."

Silence stretches out for a long time before Kakashi stands up.

"Sorry I said that. I don't believe Shun would ever hate you." His sensei says softly.

"We left him." 

Kakashi has nothing to answer to that, everything they can do now is damage control.  
They won't be forgiven for this. 


	11. Closer to your heart

"I heard they kicked you out because you couldn't write your own name." 

"Good thing yours is only three letters then."

Ino laughed. He punched her. Naruto went to push him back.

Two hands on his shoulders, and everything went red.

 

"Are you okay ?" Sasuke's eyes were soft and understanding. He hadn't tried to touch him. Unlike Iruka who left his hands hovering above the blond's arms as he talked to him, like he couldn't decide if he wanted to comfort or restrain him.

In the end he was grounded again. 

 

He was so angry. This douchebag fucking touched him, touched her, like he was allowed just because he could. 

But then Sasuke had joined him in the basement, and he had looked so sad. It made Naruto calm down immediately, like a cold shower. He had an urge to distract the other man. 

They spared easily, like friends, like they were familiar with each others. Naruto quickly trusted him enough to do it without the gloves. But then Sasuke moved away like he was afraid the blond might hurt him, and that made Naruto grab his t-shirt because he definitely doesn't. Didn't, at that time anyway. He came easily, pliable, like someone who is not afraid of violence. 

It made Naruto freeze. 

They were so close that their breath mingled, that the two onyx eyes took most of his vision like there was nothing else. 

He let go, could feel his legs shake as he left the room. 

 

His first family had a son, about his age. They had asked this boy to give him a name back then, and since his own name was Michu, he had called Naruto Michi. 

That's not Naruto's name anymore. 

Once they were playing in the living room. Michu was just out of the bath and his brown hair were messy, forming little spikes at the back of his head. He smelled like soap and chocolate, and grabbed Naruto's neck to whisper a secret in his ear. 

Naruto kissed him. 

The boy had looked a little surprised, and then his mom had grabbed Naruto by the arm and pushed him until he had hit the table's foot.

"Don't touch my son." She had screamed. And then Naruto wasn't allowed to play with the other boy, wasn't allowed to be in the same room as him even. They had kept him in their house though, as they would get a stable income from keeping him there. But he wasn't allowed to touch anyone, and no one would touch him either. They had been so disgusted with him, like he had a really bad, gross skin-disease. Naruto would get nightmares that he would accidentally touch someone and they would die.

He stayed there four years. 

At some point, he stopped yearning for physical contact and started to get scared by it. He had a feeling that something very bad would happen if people touched him.

 

* * *

 

He waits until he's sure that everyone is asleep, uses the bathroom's window, and only puts his shoes on when he's outside. But it's useless, he only takes a few step before Sasuke grabs him by his hood. 

"Where do you think you're going ?"

The older man is wearing a long sleeved black t-shirt and jeans. Does this bastard ever sleep ? 

"Do you ever sleep ?" Sasuke's eyebrows rise. 

"I'll sleep next to your bed if you keep running away like that."

That makes Naruto blush for some reason, but luckily it's too dark outside for Sasuke to notice.

"I need to see Gaara." He blurts out to change the subject.

"The gangster ? Why ?"

 

He can't tell him. He's not even sure himself. But Danzo knows something about his parents, and the only connection he has to Danzo is Gaara. 

He doesn't want to go back to this gross and terrifying hotel by himself.

"I have a question to ask him."

Sasuke frowns, his dark eyes gleaming with realization.

"You're not gonna be part of his group."

"I don't want to." Well, he does, but Gaara wouldn't let him anyway, not after how badly he fucked up. "I really just want to ask him something."

"What ?"

Naruto shakes his head. "I can't tell you."

Sasuke is quiet for a moment. 

"Fine, I'm coming with you then."

"What ? No !"

"There is no way I'm letting you go there alone. Either we're going or I'm locking you in your room."

Naruto scoffs, then realizes Sasuke could totally do that.

For a second he forgot, that he's one of his supposed caretakers. But it doesn't feel this way, not when the man never tries to make him do anything. 

He sighs. But it's not too bad of a deal. He'll be safer if someone is waiting for him outside.

 

* * *

 

Sasuke walks next to him, on the narrow sidewalk. He somehow manages not to accidentally bump into him, but if Naruto wanted, he could brush his shoulder against the older man.

 

It makes him nervous how much he wants to. 

 

"I should have killed this bastard" He puffs his chest, masking his confusion with anger.

"Who ?"

"Sai. I can't fucking believe I let him out alive."

He looks at Sasuke, but the man only shrugs. 

"I'm quite sure your friend Shikamaru is going to convince her to dump him."

"Yeah. But still. You shouldn't hit a girl."

"But you should hit a guy ? That's pretty sexist." 

 

Naruto wants to be angry but he's laughing before it happens. "You really are an intellectual princess aren't you ?"

Sasuke smiles. "Again. You think calling me "princess" is insulting ?" 

"It's fitting. You dress like a gay guy." His clothes are always so fancy, clean and skin-tight. He's lucky he's so muscular or he would get his ass kicked.

"You know how gay guys dress ?" He smiles. 

"F-fuck off." Naruto stutters a little so it's not very intimidating.

 

Sasuke bursts into laughter, the loud sound filling the sketchy, scary street. The blond smiles, even if the joke's on him.

"You're still such a kid sometimes." He comments when he's calmed down and they started walking again.

"Wait, you're like, barely older than me." Actually..  "How old are you even ?"

"Twenty."

Naruto's expression must be hilarious because Sasuke is laughing again.

"And they let you handle us ? Are they insane ?" 

"You guys aren't that difficult, and way less impressive that you want to be."

"We're ghetto kids, don't think just because the girls like you they won't break your hands." 

"Hn-hn." He agrees humorously. "I'd be fucked since I can't hit girls."

Naruto laughs again. "What do your parents think of your job ?"

 

Sasuke's smile becomes somber, but doesn't go away. "They're dead." 

"Oh. Sorry. Did you grew up in an orphanage too then ?" It wouldn't be surprising. Naruto knows a lot of educators, like Iruka, were themselves raised in those institutions and decided to work there because of that, when it was still possible for very poor kids to get an education.

"No, I was raised by my parent's friends."

"How was it ? How old were you when they died ?" Naruto closes his mouth before another question arises, trying to seem a little less interested in the man's private life. 

"I was eleven. And, it was nice, for the most part. I traveled a lot, to India, to Russia, to Europe, it was interesting, I learned a lot." 

There is a sadness is Sasuke's eyes that doesn't match his words, but Naruto decides no to pry. 

"You must know a lot of stuffs." He agrees instead.

 

They walk in peaceful silence until they get close enough to Gaara's building that the guard starts staring at them, a clear warning. 

"I'll go inside alone. Wait for me here." 

He expects Sasuke to ignore his demand, but the other man nods. 

 

He approaches him and takes a hold of his sweater's collar. 

Naruto tenses up but lets him. He can feel the warmth of his fingers through the clothing. His heart is beating loudly in his chest, and there is sweat on the back of his neck despite the chilly weather. 

Sasuke adjust the garment a little, hesitates, and then pulls the hood over Naruto's head. 

"Be careful." He tells him quietly. 

The tenderness in his voice is enough to make Naruto silent. He nods. Hesitates. Now he doesn't want to leave Sasuke behind. He would feel better if they stayed together.

 

He shakes his head, tells himself to man up. 

"Wait for me here." He repeats, and then goes. 


End file.
